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“From the stuff of space opera, Dick spins a deeply unsettling existential horror story, a nightmare you’ll never be sure you’ve woken up from.”—Lev Grossman, Time
Glen Runciter runs a lucrative business—deploying his teams of anti-psychics to corporate clients who want privacy and security from psychic spies. But when he and his top team are ambushed by a rival, he is gravely injured and placed in “half-life,” a dreamlike state of suspended animation. Soon, though, the surviving members of the team begin experiencing some strange phenomena, such as Runciter’s face appearing on coins and the world seeming to move backward in time. As consumables deteriorate and technology gets ever more primitive, the group needs to find out what is causing the shifts and what a mysterious product called Ubik has to do with it all.
“More brilliant than similar experiments conducted by Pynchon or DeLillo.”—Roberto Bolaño
Glen Runciter is dead--or is everybody else? Somebody died in an explosion orchestrated by Runciter's business competitors, but it's hard to tell who. Filled with paranoic menace and unfettered slapstick, Ubik is a metaphysical comedy of death and salvation--which comes in a convenient aerosal spray, to be used only as directed.
Anonymous
Posted April 27, 2001
This is a kind of novel as a chess game, trying to understand what is really happening, at the same time as a deeply emotional struggle with identity and the inevitability of death. I've read a couple of thousand novels of all kinds and this would be in my top ten.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Kerry_Nietz
Posted December 9, 2012
I recently read Philip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High Castle” and was a little disappointed with it. For me, that book lacked the wild speculative nature and imaginative concepts I’d come to expect from Dick’s stories. Thankfully, “Ubik” has both those things in spades.
“Ubik” exists in a world where there are a variety of psychic humans who can be hired (like the precogs that were central to Dick’s “Minority Report”) for nearly any psychic activity, including nefarious things like corporate espionage.
Ubik takes it a speculative step further, though, in that while whole companies of psychic individuals exist, there are also companies dedicated to countering (or blocking) psychic activities. So if you have a telepath reading your mind, you could hire an anti-telepath to block that reading. Interesting and unique idea.
Another interesting “Ubik” concept is “half-life”. This is the idea that some people, if they are caught soon enough after death, can be frozen and communicated with for many years after they otherwise would’ve died. The story opens, in fact, with one of the main characters communicating with his dead wife. She helps run his company!
The book is a real page-turner, and many times I found myself wondering where the author was going, only to find he was going someplace complete different than I expected. If I had any disappointment with “Ubik”, it is with the character arc of Pat Conley. She possesses a unique anti-psi ability, which never seemed to get the use that the buildup of her character suggested. So many things in Dick’s stories are mere diversions, though. He gets you watching one hand, only to sneak the ball into the other.
What shouldn’t be missed here, though, is the metaphor of the substance Ubik (Is it a salve? Is it a spray? Is it a pill?). Like nearly everything in the story, the real Ubik is more than you might originally suspect.
“Ubik” is worth every penny. Read it!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.After reading about 20 books thus far this year I can honestly say this one would be the title I would recommend without hesitation. Brilliant pros. Brilliant plot. Extremely suspenseful and absolutely original. If you are a person who reads to relax you mind perhaps this is not a book for you.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 29, 2013
An involved story that blends sci-fi and mystery...absurdly funny and compelling.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted August 15, 2012
Smart story keeps you guessing (wrongly) what's going on.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Please do not think I am taking away from teh author, but the book needed work. It left a lot to the imagination of te reader. too many gaps.
Good concept though, something that I would like to see pushed further.
sb
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted July 13, 2011
A good story told with the clarity of a writer confident in his own imagimation.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted October 4, 2009
I Also Recommend:
Enjoyable read. Not strenuous in any way, while still imaginative.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 12, 2009
A blissful breakdown of reality, you will be joyfully confused by the bleary and dreamlike world that is Ubik.
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Posted May 24, 2008
A mind blowing read....my head was tired after finishing this book.
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Posted December 22, 2006
Who is dead,who is alive,is there a tommorow? this tale asks the question are you alive or are you dead? Through the book we are asked the question at the beggining of my recomendation and I do not think the author knows either(no offense)but the point is the fearful question what happens when we pass away.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 29, 2011
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Posted August 14, 2011
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Posted April 22, 2011
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Posted March 7, 2010
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Posted February 11, 2010
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Posted August 2, 2011
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Posted April 3, 2013
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Overview
“From the stuff of space opera, Dick spins a deeply unsettling existential horror story, a nightmare you’ll never be sure you’ve woken up from.”—Lev Grossman, Time
Glen Runciter runs a lucrative business—deploying his teams of anti-psychics to corporate clients who want privacy and security from psychic spies. But when he and his top team are ambushed by a rival, he is gravely injured and placed in “half-life,” a dreamlike state of suspended animation. Soon, though, the ...